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Thursday, March 21, 2013

This was our first week back from Spring Break. It was awesome rough! I’m pretty sure I had kids pushing me to come into the school. My heels planted on the ground, toes in the air, hands out to the side so I couldn’t fit through the door, screaming “don’t tell me what to do!” …. I’m not kidding, it was dramatic. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE school. Ask anyone. But I would have survived with just one more day of spring break.

This week in math, we are learning about shapes. We always start with some sort of warm up (usually Marcy Cook). If you are not familiar with her warm ups, you need to research them pronto! They are FAB! But when learning about shapes, I live and breathe Quick Draws. This is the book I have:

Basically, it is a book full of random pictures.

You show a picture on the overhead/smartboard for about 3 seconds. (Being in 1st grade, I show it for 8.) I tell them to study the picture, and when I cover it up they need to draw it. Then I show the picture again for about 3 seconds so they can tweak it. This gets them thinking not only about shapes, but spacial sense. Here are a few examples of the pictures:

You only use one, so the other picture on the page is covered up. After they have done it, you allow the kids to describe what they saw, and how they drew it. Not only do they love this activity, but it requires really good thinking strategies. Some may say they saw four trapezoids with a square in the middle, while others saw a square inside of another square.

Sometimes I draw the picture the way they describe their thinking, and it usually doesn't turn out like the real picture. They notice how specific they need to be with their words. They can't just tell you they saw a big square with a smaller square inside, they need to be SPECIFIC!

Another way to do the warm up is to describe the picture to them. This now requires following directions! I tell them to draw a big square. Inside the square there is a diagonal line starting from the bottom right corner and ending in the top left corner, etc. You get the point! My kids LOVE these activities! Again, this is just a warm up, so it only takes about 10-15 minutes (unless you choose to extend it!)